COMMENTARY : Heisman, with strange past, has Hog future

JIM BAILEY

Posted on Tuesday, November 6, 2007

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/206864/

When the Heisman Trophy was created in 1935, technically it was open to any college football player in the United States. However, athletes soon realized anyone who didn’t specialize in carrying or throwing the ball need not apply.

Of the first 72 Heisman recipients, 1935-2006, 66 were quarterbacks or running backs. Eventually, other honors evolved to fill the void: Outland Trophy and Vince Lombardi Award (interior linemen ); (Dick ) Butkus Award (linebackers ); Jim Thorpe Award (defensive backs ).

The winning exceptions to the unofficial Heisman rule were ends Larry Kelley of Yale in 1936 and Leon Hart of Notre Dame in 1949 — all ends were “tight” in those days — plus flanker Johnny Rodgers of Nebraska (1972 ), wide receivers Tim Brown of Notre Dame (1987 ) and Desmond Howard of Michigan (1991 ) and cornerback-wide receiver Charles Woodson of Michigan (1997 ).

Sports information directors probably still marvel at the feat Notre Dame’s publicists pulled in 1956, when Paul Hornung won the Heisman Trophy as the quarterback on a 2-8 team that was drilled 33-7 by Navy, 40-0 by Oklahoma and 48-8 by Iowa. Legend has it that the Notre Dame SID saw no obvious leader among Heisman candidates and kicked the Hornung campaign into overdrive.

That theory possibly has some validity, but only up to a point. A fifthplace finisher as a junior in the previous year’s Heisman balloting, Hornung was no dark horse. With 1, 066 points, he shaded Johnny Majors of 10-1 Tennessee, No. 2 in the national polls, and Tom McDonald of 10-0 Oklahoma, No. 1 nationally and with a 40-game winning streak in progress. (Ironically, a 7-0 victory by a resurgent Notre Dame squad ended the Sooners’ streak at 47 in November 1957. )

OU teammates McDonald (973 points ) and Jerry Tubbs (724 ) finished third and fourth in the 1956 balloting. A center-linebacker, Tubbs became one of the few nonbacks to seriously contend in Heisman balloting, and thus may have been the random factor that swung the trophy for Hornung.

Hornung went on to a Green Bay Packers career that landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Incidentally, a Syracuse fullback named Jim Brown finished fifth in the 1956 Heisman race with 561 points. The best I recall, Brown also enjoyed a fairly decent NFL career.

Heisman voters raised some eyebrows — mine, anyway — in 1997, when the trophy went to Woodson, who intercepted seven passes on one side of the ball and caught 11 for 231 yards on the other.

That happened to be the season that Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning passed for 3, 819 yards and 36 touchdowns, capping his four-year record of 11, 201 yards and 89 touchdown passes. Manning finished second in the Heisman chase.

A defense-offense combination can be a refreshing change of pace among tons and tons of passing and rushing stats, but 1997 wasn’t the year for novelty. The results seemed like a slap at a player who returned for his senior year, risking injury that could have nullified a pro future solidly assured by the end of his junior season.

Arkansas never knew real Heisman Trophy excitement until Darren McFadden, as a sophomore, finished second to Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith last year.

We think we know where this year’s award belongs. Any Heisman voters with doubts are welcome to consult members of the South Carolina defensive unit.